Voces del Prado

The Creaking Annunciation by Fra Angelico

Pilar Silva Maroto, Head of the Department of Conservation of Flemish Painting and the Northern Schools up to 1700, 1997-2017

In the late 1960’s, the Museum had no air-conditioning and, in the heat, the Paseo del Prado windows would be opened. I can remember coming to the Flemish Painting and Italian Painting halls, which were located on each side of the Main Gallery (at the Goya end), and on one of those days Professor Rogelio Buendía from the Autónoma University (who has now retired) was visiting the Italian paintings, and I heard him rant: “Can you hear how The Annunciation by Fra Angelico is creaking!?” Because the windows were open. Of course, not as many cars passed down the Paseo del Prado as they do now and the air was much better than it is now, less polluted. But it was still disastrous. As for the ways the works were treated, I can remember visiting the Flemish Painting halls in the late 1960’s or early 1970’s, and the hall supervisor was opening and closing the triptychs so that people could admire them open and closed. Even those of The Garden of Earthly Delights.